Five years on from the recognition of the Cornish as a national minority through the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, Mebyon Kernow has criticised the UK Government for failing to meet its obligations towards the Cornish.

The Government White Paper “Help Shape Our Future: The 2021 Census of Population and Housing in England and Wales” does not include support for a Cornish tick-box. However, this Autumn, a statutory order will be laid before both Houses of Parliament. It will set out the content of the 2021 census and, very importantly, this order can be amended by the UK Government, the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

At Friday’s meeting of Mebyon Kernow’s National Executive (12th April), Party Leader Cllr Dick Cole challenged politicians to “show vision and leadership” for Cornwall by campaigning for greater self-government through a National Assembly of Cornwall.

On Friday (12th April), MK leader Cllr Dick Cole was part of a cross-party delegation which met with two representatives of the Office of National Statistics to make representations about a Cornish tick-box on the 2021 census.

The UK Government has just published a White Paper entitled “Help Shape Our Future: The 2021 Census of Population and Housing in England and Wales.” It states that there will not be a Cornish tickbox on the next census.

Mebyon Kernow – the Party for Cornwall has welcomed the publication of an Opinion from the Council of Europe which includes a number of recommendations which relate to the Cornish as a national minority.

Mebyon Kernow – the Party for Cornwall has described the official DCLG (Department for Communities and Local Government) response to a 10,000-strong petition calling on central government to reinstate funding for the Cornish language as “shameful.” In its reply, DCLG stated that “support for the development of the Cornish language was time-limited” and failed to understand that funding for the language is the responsibility of the Westminster government under Parts 1 and 2 of the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages 2002 and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities 2014.

Mebyon Kernow has described the Boundary Committee’s proposal for a “Devonwall seat” as a “travesty of history, democracy and Cornwall’s very nationhood.” But the Party for Cornwall has also put the blame for the proposal firmly at the door of the UK Government. The Boundary Commission (for England) has today publicised its recommendation for a cross-Tamar “Bideford, Bude and Launceston” seat, which would include land stretching from St Teath and St Breward, to Bude and Launceston.